Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 September 1899 — WASHINGTON GOSSIP [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

WASHINGTON GOSSIP

Admiral Dewey's official welcome homa will take place in Washington when the magnificent sword voted to him by Congress will be presented to the hero of Manila bay on the steps of the Capitol. There will be official delegations from the Senate and House, under the leadership of Senator Proctor of Vermont and Representative David B. Henderson of lowa, the Most of the State Governments will be represented officially. The ceremony of presenting the sword by President McKinley will take place on the east front of the Capitol, on the spot where the Presidents are inaugurated, and the plaza between the Capitol and the Congressional Library will furnish standing room for the thousands who are expected as spectators. At night there will be a general illumination of the city, and a torchlight parade of troops and civic organizations. The ceremony will take place immediately after the reception in New York. An informal understanding has been reached for a temporary agreement on the Alaskan boundary. The boundary line is to form a temporary barrier only, and its location will not prejudice the Government case of either country. The modus vivendi provides for a line running just northward of Kluckwan, and it bars out Canada entirely from the Lynn canal. Arrangements of a temporary character may yet be however, to permit the Canadians to get their goods across the border, but the protocol as now drawn does not provide for such a free port. The boundary line under the modus vivendi is a slight concession to Canada, but it is still far inside of the British claim and is in substance the American line. Chinese missionaries, some of them at present at home, are back of a scheme to transplant a modern sawmill from New York State to Wn Hu, China. American, English and Chinese residents of Wu Hu are said to take kindly to the proposition, and Li Hung Chang is quoted as having given his consent, and along with it a check for $2,000 fqr stock in the new enterprise. There is no modern sawmill in all China, and lumber is sawed there by the most antiquated methods. It is said that the value of the proposed mill as an object lesson for the natives will be important, and that for this reason the Government is looking upon the plan with favor. There was more gold in the treasury Thursday than the Government has ever had before at one time. The net gold and bullion, including $100,000,000 reserved for redemption of United States notes, as reported at the Treasury Department on that day was $251,618,132. The amount never reached $200,000,000 until August last year, when it was a little more than $217,000,000. The actual amount of gold coin in the treasury Thursday was $195,812,840, and of gold bullion $128,904,321, making a total of $324,717,661, against which gold certificates to the value of $73,099,529 are outstanding. According to official reports at the State Department, steps have been taken to break down the quinine trust, organized by Germnn manufacturers. Recently some of the largest and most influential planters in Java have organized to control the supply in such a way as to keep the raw material out of the hands of the syndicate and have begun to tlTcourage direct trade with the United States. Factories have been established in Java, and since last January, when the new trade begun, 265,000. ounces of sulphate of quinine have been shipped direct to this country. It will take more than half a million dollars to repair ships of war during the current fiscal year. The available appropriation amounts to $3,000,000, and Rear Admiral Hichborn, the chief constructor of the navy, says that sum will not suffice for a longer period than six months. He will endeavor to make it hold out until Congress meets in December, when the Navy Department will submit a deficiency estimate of fully $3,000,000 to carry the work on until July, 1900. When Gen. Shafter retires as a brigadier general in the regular army next month he will be continued as a major general of volunteers as a reward for his services around Santiago. The vacant brigadier generalship will probably go to Gen. Lawton. Brig. Gen. Anderson and Maj. Gen. Merritt of the regular establishment will retire in the next six months, and this will make two new brigadiers, who are likely to be MacArthur and Wheaton. The blanks for writing the names in the Cuban census are twice as large as the blanks for the same purpose In thia country. This grow* out of the fact that the Spanish names are usually about twice as long as American and English names. In Spain it is the general cuatom to give a child the surname of his father and of his mother, and thin custom has been followed in Cuba for a great many years. *•" •" Arrangements have been made through the regular diplomatic channels for the reshmptiou of commercial relations with Spain. To this end Minister JBtorer at Madrid has been instructed to take such steps as will lend to the usual commercial treaties between this country and Spain. * ; . t The people of Florida and Georgia are urging very strongly upon the Secretary of War the organization of colored regiments for service in the West Indies or the Philippines, claiming that the black race Ut peculiarly fitted for service in the hot countries. In Georgia alone it la claimed that ten regiments of colored troops could be raised within twenty days. United States Senators, members of Congress sod Governors of States are back of the movement and have united la a petition to the Secretary.